i'm joined now by rick newman, chief business krbt for u.s. news and world report. rick, it's good to have you here. as we talk did bsh we've been talking about the stalemate for weeks now about the fiscal cliff in washington d.c. how many affect does that really have on consumers during the holiday season? >> i'm surprised it hasn't had more of an affect. we're really only starting to see it seep into consumer thinking, i think, in the last few days, and to hear that washington has basically left town. it looks very dire for some kind of big deal, and, yet, holiday spending seems to be holding up so far. i mean, anecdotally is t seems to be holding up anyway. we won't know for sure until after the holidays. they seem to be saying, yeah, we know there's some problem in washington, but it's almost as if they're tuning it out and saying we're just going to get along with our holiday. >> as we wait to find the final analysis of what this holiday season really meant, we can talk about the marketses and what we're witnessing there because they were down on friday tumblin